Comment by jasperdale on Calgary ACX meetup, July 7 · 2024-06-21T03:50:15.014Z · LW · GW

Hi David,

Thanks for writing this. I have read it all and you make good points, although I will point out that if you want rapid responses be aware that the length put me off reading it for a few days.

I'll give you a few scattered notes in response. Bear in mind that by far the most common sentiment was broad agreement, even if the points will nitpick possible disagreements.

1. I appreciate your desire to highlight areas that you got wrong. Always admirable.
2. I remain more pessimistic than you that there are easy or strong answers in how to persuade others. Russian propaganda has been happening for a very very long time. There's decent evidence that the earliest seeds of JFK conspiracies were planted by the KGB. If you wanted to do counterpropaganda against JFK conspiracy theories, you could (i) be a reasonable guy who gently pushes back when the topic comes up, which is a good thing to do, but won't move the needle much; or (ii) start a media empire strong enough to rival popular Oliver Stone movies starring Kevin Costner and Kevin Bacon. I just think the task is almost impossible. (Oliver Stone has a 2016 movie called "Ukraine on Fire" which is also pro-Russia and anti-Western, by the way. Seems like a great guy).
3. I'd push back on the idea that western media agreed that 2014 was just Russian backed separatists. Lots of media got that right (e.g. 1, 2, 3).
4. It is difficult to talk about a "cease-fire" in a neutral way. It encompasses everything from offering an unconditional surrender to demanding an unconditional surrender. This also frustrates me in middle-east discussions.

Comment by jasperdale on What DALL-E 2 can and cannot do · 2022-05-21T19:46:07.071Z · LW · GW

It must be something like that, but it still feels like there's a hole there.  The query is for "ASL", not "Hands", and these images don't look like something from a protest. The top left might be vaguely similar to some kind of street gesture. 

I'm curious what the role of the query writer is. Can you ask DALL-E for "this scene, but with black skin colour"? I got a sense that updating areas was possible but inconsistent. Could DALL-E learn to return more of X to a given person by receiving feedback? I really don't know how complicated the process gets.

Comment by jasperdale on What DALL-E 2 can and cannot do · 2022-05-20T15:08:40.333Z · LW · GW

I'm curious why this prompt resulted in overwhelmingly black looking hands. Especially considering that all the other prompts I see result in white subjects being represented. Any theories?